Dawnlark Plains love fills the room from the ground to the ceiling

Though it was Catori Coealcanth most sincerely hoped to see, she was not disappointed in the slightest by what emerged from the den. One after the other, Catori and Grayday’s children bumbled out of their mother’s embrace and flocked to her willowy forelimbs. The first one, a pale little peach cream confection, gummed curiously at the feathering upon her wrists — and although it tickled, she held very still. Grayday hadn’t expressly given her courage to touch them, though her slim muzzle swept instinctively down to kiss the eggshell-fragile crown. “Oh,” she breathed timorously, her breath fluttering in her chest as tears welled in her Neptune eyes and spilled into the black velvet of her cheeks. Stopping just short of actually touching Kitten, she drew her tongue across her lips and belatedly asked her cousin-in-law, “Guppies — puppies — come. May touch?”

The more brightly colored male, an intriguing mix of Grayday’s stormy slate and a deeper, more earthy shade of Catori’s vivid red, trotted up alongside his sister — but his manner was as protective as it was curious, and she was respectful of his self-possessed nature. Very gently, she whuffed warmly at the pair with her whiskers quivering like a curious sea lion’s. She made sure to include Sunny in her observations so that the growing male would not feel left out or slighted:

“Sunny, proud brrrother?”

---

It was a joyous reunion that followed, and an invitation from Grayday for Coelacanth to stay the night at least, to give her time to recover from her journey. Her reluctance was palpable, but not the reason why — she kept her hurt and Aditya’s name locked deep inside, along with Komodo’s tumultuous trespass — and soon enough, she set it aside, mindful of the need to spend time with her family and be present for each and every shared moment. “Thank you — I stay,” she acquiesced in a silky susurrus, and spent some time whispering stories with Grayday and Catori until finally she left their den to seek out a temporary sleeping place of her own somewhere nearby.